tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post4039240343675587423..comments2024-03-06T06:34:42.881-05:00Comments on EconoSpeak: "as a"Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-34191127471289532892018-08-12T13:26:45.827-04:002018-08-12T13:26:45.827-04:00Regarding your #2, Bruce, the most interesting exa...Regarding your #2, Bruce, the most interesting example is "people of color". I realize that those who invoke it usually recognize, when they think about it, that it is essentially a tactical alliance of many disparate groups united for the purpose of gaining useful leverage. Its artificiality tends to be forgotten in practice, however, and "as a person of color" is among the most commonly heard self-identifiers.Peter Dormanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00093399591393648071noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4900303239154048192.post-29866994459262015422018-08-12T04:48:15.485-04:002018-08-12T04:48:15.485-04:00When people think they are speaking of their own e...When people think they are speaking of their own experience "as a" [fill in the blank intersections] we can hope they are speaking genuinely from their own experience, but the categorical labels suggest two other less sanguine possibilities:<br /><br />1.) They may be speaking to and about a constructed contrast between their own experience and the imagined life experience of a social identity that they do not share. <br /><br />It is a natural rhetorical impulse to look for some contrast and to exaggerate the contrast. When the speaker does not actually know the context or content of her chosen foil, things can spin sadly out of control.<br /><br />2.) The abstract and constructive nature of speaking from a frame that admits categories of "identity" that do not have an organic social and cultural foundation. Asian-American or Hispanic-American are not "real": they are political catch-all's that subsume not closely related, actual cultures that are informed by a rich cultural experience and instead abstract commonalities and a history of grievance made artificial by the abstraction.Bruce Wilderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09631065564839959376noreply@blogger.com